Traumatic amputations are generally gruesome, devastating injuries that may result in death. These injuries frequently result in extreme blood loss which can contribute greatly to the associated fatality rate. The time required to control the bleeding of an amputation is vital in reducing blood loss. Because these injuries often occur in dire conditions, such as severe accidents or on the battlefield, where medical attention is not always readily available, it is critically important that the victims (who often have to treat themselves) or caregivers (medics, first responders, or medical providers) quickly control and stop the bleeding.
The most commonly used treatment to control bleeding arising from amputations, large wounds, and burns is the elastic bandage, often along with another treatment material, such as gauze or a wound pad. These bandages are well-known in the prior art and have been used for many years. Caregivers often simply wrap amputation stumps with an elastic bandage attempting to apply great pressure to the wound in hopes that the pressure will help control the bleeding. Still, it is often not possible to apply sufficient pressure to the stump to control the bleeding as it is difficult to control or stop the bleeding relying on pressure alone. As such, caregivers also have been found to use some type of treatment material, such as gauze or an absorbent pad, to cover the wound prior to applying the elastic bandage over the dressing. The treatment material helps to apply pressure to the wound and aids in controlling bleeding. However, the material often comes undone during handling—which frequently requires multiple separate packaging components, i.e. gauze, wound pad, elastic bandage and/or tape or other fasteners.
In addition to controlling bleeding, these treatment materials provide an important function of covering and protecting open wounds. Quickly covering the wounds helps to prevent the risk of contamination and the infection that contamination causes. However, these materials are often cumbersome to handle and difficult to appropriately apply, particularly on an immobilized victim. These difficulties are further complicated by the multiple components necessary to properly wrap and package a stump.
It is therefore important that the material used to cover and wrap stumps resulting from amputations be easy to use so as to not be unnecessarily handled—causing further contamination. It is also important that these materials are able to be quickly and easily applied to the amputation.
Notwithstanding the usefulness of the above-described methods, a need still exists for traumatic amputation dressing, particularly an amputation dressing that quickly covers and wraps an amputation so as to both expeditiously control bleeding and prevent further contamination.